We slept about nine hours and were up at 6am, ready to do a bit more exploring before heading to the airport. We were lucky in that a bus that took us toward Notre Dame picked up right across the street, and was mostly empty at this time of morning. While they were both closed this early, we walked by Notre Dame and the Louve, getting some pictures at each.

We strolled slowly and headed to Angelina, a restaurant I first heard about before my first trip from watching Somebody Feed Phil, a food/travel show on Netflix, featuring Phil Rosenthal, creator, writer, producer of Everybody Loves Raymond. He’d tried to visit the place for their famous hot chocolate on the show, though it was closed for renovations.  We arrived prior to opening, and were the first in a line of about a dozen people by the time the doors opened.  I ordered a breakfast of pastries and hot chocolate for both of us, which was ridiculously priced, though delicious, and again…vacation.

A quick Uber ride had us back to the hotel with time for me to shower and pack.  While I ordered an Uber to Nord train station to take the train back to the airport, I ended up deciding to change the destination and ride all the way to the airport. It cost a bit more, but saved some time and hassle.  Upon arrival, we got our seat requests, cleared passport control within just a few minutes, and took a train to another terminal to stop at the Yotel Hotel lounge to chill for a bit.  My friend and coworker Brandon had the weekend free so hopped over to Paris just to enjoy the upgrade and food, so he was waiting for us in the lounge when we arrived.  We had the ability to get a few snacks from the lounge, so grabbed those to take home for the rest of the family.

After a quick train ride back to the other terminal, we arrived to the gate to find another coworker and her husband who were on the way back from Male, so we were slightly jealous.  There were plenty of seats in Delta One, though the agents waited a while to assign us seats, but we boarded as soon as we were able.

This was Nala’s first upgrade and experience in Delta One.  She was excited, though I don’t think she realizes what a difference it is from coach, though I’m sure she’ll realize it more when she’s older. I of course started with the obligatory glass of champagne while we settled in.  Nala wasn’t real excited about her food, so I ended up helping her with her appetizer, soup, and salad, which luckily weren’t too filling, as I hate wasting food.  I had the salmon as my meal, and she had Buffalo mozzarella panciotti pasta.  For dessert, she ordered an ice cream sundae (which she’d been begging for since I first told her about when she was 5) along with a rich dark chocolate cake, which I ended up eating most of.  I stayed with my habit of having both the cheese plate with baguette and an ice cream sundae, of course paired with port.

We both snoozed for a while, though she was awake for the mid-flight chocolate chip cookie service, but didn’t save me one!  The pre-arrival meal was an herb roasted chicken sandwich.  We were some of the first off, and cleared customs very quickly.  We waited for our friends to clear so we could say bye to them, and in short order, were at my car in the employee lot, and then home soon after.  We were thankful to have our friends Jen and Maddy in town and at the house for dinner and to hang out, which made it a great end to the fun trip.

To recap, it was a very quick trip, though the intention was never to try to see everything, but to at least make it to Paris, giving Nala her first out-of-country experience, and first upgrade.  We are so thankful to now have a nonstop to Paris, and hope that it stays around, at least long enough to take the whole family.